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Editors' Review

MediaMonkey Standard offers plenty of ways to enjoy your favorite tunes, but its default layout isn't very easy on the eyes. Luckily, you can customize that and just about every other inch of this powerful music player. That, combined with the built-in streaming radio and other nifty features, make it one of the best free media players on the market.

The program makes you click through a ton of pop-up windows -- including several administration permission windows -- while it's installing. The program, itself, is worth the wait for most music fans, though. It has neat features like tabbed playlists and party mode that make it easy to play your music, however you want. In addition to collecting music already on your computer, MediaMonkey Standard will search for music on any connected drives. It supports most streaming radio, as well. The program has an active community of coders and tinkerers behind it that have made lots of custom skins and tweaks you can add to the player. That's handy because the program, itself, looks a little bland. There is a gold version that unlocks more goodies, a fact you'll know with any usage of the player because it will constantly remind you that you can get it by paying or by completing special deals.

Don't be bothered by the program's mediocre layout -- it's housing one of the best media players we've tried and you can easily change the looks to suit your preferences.

Publisher's Description

+

From Ventis Media:
MediaMonkey is the media manager for serious collectors. It catalogs audio and video files, whether they're located on a hard drive or network, dividing them into different 'collections' (e.g. contemporary, classical music, audiobooks, home movies, tv, videos). It looks up and tags Album Art and data via Freedb and the web, includes an automatic renamer to rename and organize files, and a playlist manager to arrange your mixes. It includes a CD ripper, podcast manager, and downloader to build your library, along with a CD/DVD Burner, UPnP / DLNA server, and sync manager to share it. With built-in conversion functionality, it syncs with almost any device including Android, iPhone, iPod, and other devices, as well as a variety of televisions and DVD players (via DLNA). Its player automatically adjusts volume levels and supports a Party mode that locks the UI for use at public events. Most importantly, it supports hundreds of scripts, plug-ins and visualizations to further customize it to meet your needs. Supports MP3, OGG, WMA, FLAC, MPC, WAV, CDs, M3U, PLS, AVI, MP4, WMV.

What's new in this version:

Version 4.1.14.1812 may include unspecified updates, enhancements, or bug fixes.

The CD-ripping interface is maddening if you need to customise track names. One slip, for example inadvertently press the down arrow when the main file-naming input control is selected, and you lose every customisation you put in, you have to start over.

I love the way the auto DJ works.
There is more than one way to create your own play lists. Files can be added or removed from the playlist after it has been saved. There is also an auto playlist generator, you can specify the genre, rating, artist and so on to create the auto playlist as well as the length. A large number of skins to choose from which include a micro player using very little space on the task bar. There is also an auto DJ function which selects tracks at random from the library. There is also a number of other useful functions such as podcasts, audio books and so on.

Fast rip and burn times.
Excellent cataloging and referencing.
Easy to use- very intuitive.
Does a great job with any audio.
Very complete and helpful online Help files; I have always been able to find an answer to my questions.

Cons

Ripping audiobooks sometimes requires going in to edit the properties. This can be a little tricky the first few times.
If the recording is not recognized by the database MediaMonkey uses you need to go in and manually enter the titles, artists, etc. This is tedious BUT it does not happen very often.

Summary

I highly recommend this program. MediaMonkey is fast, easy to use, with exceptional cataloging. Ecxellent clarity. I would give it at least 8 stars if I could.

Easy to install, quick to load, very logical and easy to use, can manage my iPod Shuffle using it with no problems. I am left with only one question: WHY did I suffer iTunes for so long?

Cons

After using the regularly malfunctioning, bloated, unintuitive, cumbersome, horrendously slow iTunes for years thinking there was no alternative which I could use along with my iPod Shuffle - Mediamonkey presents NO negatives whatsoever.

Easy to use. Finds all my music scattered across several hard drives. Can do the same for video, but I prefer VLC.

Cons

It crashes far too often; sometimes even when just starting.

Summary

I would recommend this for casual music players who do not want too many high powered features.

Updated on Apr 26, 2014

It's truly fantastic feature is to find all media across many drives. Then catalogs them automatically so you can ask it to play by artist, genre (dozens inbuilt and you can add more), location on hd,etc. etc. This feature alone has saved me many hours. This feature is remarkable; worth its weight in gold.

This has a nice GUI. It doesn't seem to have any major bugs. Not a major learning curve compared to some. The sound is pretty good. Has alot of configuration options.

Cons

It's slow and resource hungry. You have to pay to get options better freeware has natively. Really can't compare it's sonic ally to Jriver, Foobar, MusicBee, Winamp etc... Ads, Ads, Ads to upgrade and when you do upgrade you finally get a fully functional player. Only good if you pay!

Summary

I gave this a fair shot and really can't see why anybody would choose this over so many truly free player/organizers out there. It just doesn't seem to justify it's price...IMHO. Listen to it and then listen to say WMP. Does the Price justify itself? Not hardly!! To each their own, but I wouldn't own this. Just my 2 cents.

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